Please Note: SELECTserver is Bentley's legacy licensing application. It is being replaced by the Subscription Entitlement Service (SES) as SELECTserver has been set for deprecation. The details can be found here: Bentley Support Policy
SELECTserver is Bentley’s exclusive licensing technology and is the enabler of pooled licensing, perhaps the most significant benefit of Bentley SELECT.
SELECTserver is not a real time licensing model; Application do not connect to SELECTserver for permissions to run. It’s primary purpose is to log usage, workstations using SELECTserver based licensing will attempt connection to the license server to transmit any previously accrued usage. Although it manages licenses, it does not overly enforce them. Instead, it’s based on the premise that our users should be able to get their work done, even if it’s at the expense of license enforcement.
And finally, it is fully backward compatible with previous versions, including all the way back to the MicroStation/J generation of products, first released in 1998. MicroStation/j and MicroStation V8 2004 Edition are supported via an interim service called the SELECTserver Gateway; application are pointed to the Gateway service via pointer file, and the Gateway communicated directly with SELECTserver. Newer versions (MicroStation XM, MicroStation V8i, and early versions of MicroStation CONNECT Edition) communicate directly with SELECTserver.
For information on SELECTserver, please see these WIKI articles: SELECTserver